- Edge and Arissef

The memory jumped to Drago watching over Arissef sleeping on a hospital bed.

Reading the records, he found out that during his time on the battlefield, one of his closest friends is now facing a murder trial, one in a coma, and his ex-lover dead. He only knew the complete account after Arissef woke up days later.

More than a week ago, a noble in the kingdom kidnapped Amber and tortured her. It turned out that the noble was Amber's suitor years ago who just came back from a business trip. Enraged that she had married, he plotted against her.

Edge searched for her for days and finally tracked her whereabouts in the noble's manor.

Foreseeing this, the noble forged a death threat from Edge and asked for solace. The noble's family history being clean and closely linked to the royal family for generations made the king trust in the noble's words and sent heroes to dissuade Edge and calm him down with a restraining order. These heroes included Arissef.

However, Arissef read Edge's micro-expressions and doubted that he would send a death threat.

With Edge pleading for his help, sought to investigate deeper. Using his various spells, he managed to discover the broken Amber in an underground torture chamber. Naked, Bruised, broken bones, missing teeth, missing fingers, missing a tongue, traces of whipping... There was no longer a sign of the Paladin he fought alongside for years.

Arissef cast some healing spells on her and made her drink potions but she was barely conscious.

She was drugged...

With the manor warded with anti-spatial magic, Arissef could not bring her out without alerting the guards. He was prepared to blast his way out.

However, after moving just a few rooms, the cloaking spell he used was blown away.

From the pillars surrounding him, several figures walked out having menacing auras. Even to him, their auras were shockingly different than any aura he encountered.

"What a surprise."

From the hall the two were about an exit, a voice was heard from someone coming out of the shadows.

"I thought it would be Edge coming to rescue his wife. I did not expect there were still heroes that would have enough time and the gall to meddle in a business that does not concern them."

Midway through his lengthy speech, the figure exposed himself as the noble who asked the king for help.

His name was Barazi, head of the Entolo Family, one of the four vineyard families. He was a direct descendant of the four heroes who protected the Triarchy centuries ago, Seville Entolo.

Barazi looked disdainful and disgusted when he saw the now broken Amber.

"That wench is still alive, I see. What a waste of potential copulating with a commoner. Disappoi---"

"Enough!!! The king will have your head after this!!!" Arissef gritted his teeth as his blood was boiling at the noble's remarks.

Barazi's face contorted before speaking once again: "You are nothing but a lowly mage! You dare to think you can escape here?"

At these words, some of the men surrounding them unleashed their auras which surprisingly suffocated Arissef. The next moment, Amber who he was supporting suddenly became heavy that he lost his hold of her. She plopped to the ground, trembling and hugging her knees while burying her head behind her arms.

Arissef pitied the woman but he never stopped thinking of ways to escape.

At this point, he was already a magic tower, but his arsenal of spells was mostly made for battles as a group, specializing in wars and monster hunting where he was at a safe distance protected by his men and other heroes.

Standing his ground alone against many strong opponents while protecting a powerless woman was an idiotic idea... But he did not have a choice.

Arissef made the first move by triple-speed casting tier 2 fire, lightning, and ice spells.

He was a far cry from his peak when he became an Archmage. Aside from his limited arsenal, his control of magic was that of a baby compared to when he faced Zex in the future.

Although the spells hit their mark and did a lot of damage to their respective targets, none of them were down for the count.

The others charged at him with all kinds of weapons.

Arissef conjured magic weapons and were simultaneously fending their attacks, draining his mana and concentration rapidly.

What was worse was that the three who suffered from the spells were recovering too fast that they could join in soon.

He was able to counter with other spells from time to time but he just couldn't land clean blows to incapacitate any of them. These thugs were not to be estimated. They were tasked to surround and kill a highly experienced combatant like Edge, after all.

"Pitiful. If it was Edge, maybe he could have put up a fight. I wonder if my men were able to kill him?" Barazi declared as if he was seeking to get a reaction from Arissef and Amber.

Unfortunately, with the clashing of weapons and the blasts from magic, his words were not heard by Arissef.

Despite this, he smiled.

Barazi smiled because while Arissef did not hear it, Amber stood up and left Arissef's area of protection and was about to be struck by a thug's blade...

Arissef tried to expand his area of protection but it was too late.

...

Suddenly, the blade that was falling on Amber, abruptly fell to the thug's side as his head rolled over.

The thugs instinctively backed away from the battle as they felt a chill run down their spines.

Including Arissef, everyone felt overwhelming pressure from the newcomer.

"Are you alright?"

The newcomer asked Amber who had tears flowing from her eyes.

She wanted to answer him but nodded instead, giving Edge a faint smile. However, she could not hold in her tears as they ran down her face, clenching her fists to hide from her husband the fact that she was missing fingers.

Edge, who was covered in blood that did not match his injuries, took Amber in his arms and declared: "Whoever has hurt her will die tonight!". His words were not that loud but they held terrifying killing intent.

Barazi wore a disgusted face as he saw the two reunite.

"Kill them!"

Hearing the order, the thugs overcame the pressure and began attacking once again as if they feared disobeying their boss more than the one who slew one of them.

Edge brought Amber near Arissef. As the two locked gazes with each other, they nodded and prepared for the battle.

With Edge's arrival, the load on Arissef was lightened. However, they quickly noticed something strange about their opponents.

It seemed like a switch was flipped that changed the combat styles of the thugs. They used to have finesse and a sense of mastery over their moves, making it hard to land blows on them. However, they were currently leaving holes in their defenses and focusing on offense.

On the surface, Edge and Arissef were having an easier time dealing significant damage to their opponents. Unfortunately, they were sweating like buckets since they needed to avoid being hit themselves. Just the air pressure from the thug's strikes tell them that if one of them landed, they would be heavily injured and it will be over. This was especially so as the battle continued and the thugs were receiving more damage. This made them realize that they were facing berserkers

Since they showed themselves, Arissef already sensed a disturbing aura that emanated from each of the thugs. He was reserving some of his strength to deal with it when they revealed their hand.

Edge, however, was moving faster and faster throughout the battle that he was beginning to incapacitate some of their opponents. This lightened the duo's load even more as Arissef began casting longer chant spells to deal more damage.

It was in the middle of casting a spell that the unthinkable caught his attention.

While Edge was dealing with two thugs, a stab was coming from his right, where there shouldn't have been anyone there… at least not anyone who was alive.

When Arissef saw this, he interrupted his casting and drove his mana to cast a barrier on Edge in the nick of time. Noticing this, Edge decided to ignore the stab and focused on dealing with the two who were attacking him first.

However, to the duo's surprise, the barrier was broken instantly by the stab like it was made of thin glass and continued forward to the unprepared Edge.

There was no time for them to react and blood splattered as the blade ran through flesh.